During my editing of the appalling google translating of Swedish to English, for the soon to be published Swedish language edition of "History of the Volvo 240 Turbo" the truth about the 500 FIA Homologated Evolution 240T cars emerged.

The FIA homologation process of the 500 Evolution cars that formed the basis of the famous GpA Volvo 240T race cars [in order to make the car competitive with the Jaguar’s XKS and BMW’s 635’s coupe’s, in Group A touring car racing] was controversial, because VMS [Volvo Motor Sport] elected to convert 500 designated car similatanously [270 on the West coast and 230 on the East coast] in America, instead of down the assembly lines in Europe, and then once inspected by the FIA in the USA, the assembled 500 Evolution car's would be stripped of the Evolution Kit parts, save only for the new intercooler, which was left in place on all 500 cars, and sold across America.

For the sake of clarity all 500 of these cars had sunroofs, and none were ever shipped back to VMS to be built up into GpA race cars, as only the Swedish built 240 DL body shell's were used because they did not have a sunroof option, and were built locally in Gothenburg

VMS simply took advantage of a loop hole in the FIA regulations at that time, which did not require that so called "Evolution" cars had to be sold to the public, but merely built and inspected, prior to being granted Homologation status. Hence the controversy that followed the success of the factory car’s when they won the European Touring Car Championship in 1985 and would have won again in 1986, but for a fuel irregularity at one race meeting, that ultimately cost Volvo the Championship. This incident also resulted in the Board of Directors withdrawing from factory supported GpA racing programs, much to the disappointment of all the Flying Brick fans around the world.

Due to time constraints there was insufficient time to install the Evolution components in the 500 designated 240T cars as they went down the assembly lines in Belgium [save only for the fitting of the European market only Flat-Nose bonnet and matching plain silver grill] and so a decision was made to stow each cars Evolution component kit into the trunks of each of the designated car’s before they were shipped to the USA, and then retro-fit the component in the USA. 270 of these cars were sent to the Volvo facility, at Long Island, LA and the remaining 230 cars were sent to Volvo East Coast facility at Chesapeake Bay, during a period of only 3 weeks all 500 cars were retro-fitted simultaneously on both the West and East coast with the Evolution Kits. However, immediately following the FIA's random inspection of all the 500 "Evolution" cars, the installation teams, removed all of the Evolution components, with the exception of the uprated Intercooler, which was left in all 500 cars, and sold to the public as the first of the new uprated 240 Turbo Inetrcooled car’s.

All but one of these car’s [which was sent back to VMS] were then sold across the USA as the first of 240 Turbo Intercooler cars with the uprated intercoolers. So whilst there were no full Evolution car’s sold to the public, the remaining 499 Flat-nosed car’s that were sold to the American public were unique, in as much as they were the only Flat -Nosed [Flat Hood] 240 Turbo Intercooler cars ever imported into the USA, and all carried the designation SO2476 on the chassis plate. All subsequent 1983 240 Turbo intercooler car had the projecting, so called Coffin-Nose and grill, and fitted as standard with the uprated 760T's intercooler, which developed more power soley due to the increased efficiency of that intercooler.

Despite the rumour that 30 of these car's were sent back to Sweden to become GpA race cars, not one of the so called 500 Evolution cars was ever used by the factory, and or the factory supported GpA 240T race teams, despite claims to the contrary. All of the VMS so called Factory cars were built up from the 1983 DL body shell's because they had no sunroof's and were built in Sweden so they were readily available and relatively cheap. The myths will perpetuate I am sure, but at least a few of us now know the truth.

We need to thank Goran Sallstrom who was the project engineer in charge of the Evolution cars project, and his co-author Björn Ohlson 240T GpA Historian, who have spent so many thousand of hours putting this definitive book together, for providing the missing link, in the 240T's history after 30 plus years. Hopefully we will see it published in English late next year.

There was a 242 turbo rally car built in 1983 by Dan Thiel for pro rally in the US. I spoke with Dan many years ago and he told me Volvo supplied a non sunroof DL body for the buildup here in the US.

Makes complete sense, Last year I purchased the exact same 1983 Model 240DL from Patrick Dickman, CA, to use as a donor car for a replica 240T GpA car that I am planning to build to build next year. I had the shell stripped back to bare metal in an Acid bath then 2 pot epoxy primed within minuets of the bare shell emerging from the last dip, it was also totally rust free, so that was also a big bonus.

It was amazing to look at in the virgin metal, just like brand new going down the production line all those years ago. Patrick also got me the correct Flat-Nosed hood which I also acid dipped as well as the correct European model 1983 front fenders. Now all I have to do is finish paint it, then assemble all of my spare good GpA bits and pieces into it, and she should be a runner as they say.

Is that just a user name, or have we been visited by the real Mark Petch?

__________________
When I'm cruisin' in overdrive ...
Don't have to listen to no run-of-the-mill talk jive.

Shatner: The Colonel is breakdancing ... gimme a break!!
Rollins: Credit terms raised!
Shatner: I can't get behind any of that!
Shatner: I can't get behind so-called singers that can't carry a tune, get paid for talking, how easy is that? Well, maybe I could get behind that ...
Rollins: Well, I can't!!

Makes complete sense, Last year I purchased the exact same 1983 Model 240DL from Patrick Dickman, CA, to use as a donor car for a replica 240T GpA car that I am planning to build to build next year. I had the shell stripped back to bare metal in an Acid bath then 2 pot epoxy primed within minuets of the bare shell emerging from the last dip, it was also totally rust free, so that was also a big bonus.

It was amazing to look at in the virgin metal, just like brand new going down the production line all those years ago. Patrick also got me the correct Flat-Nosed hood which I also acid dipped as well as the correct European model 1983 front fenders. Now all I have to do is finish paint it, then assemble all of my spare good GpA bits and pieces into it, and she should be a runner as they say.

All you gotta do is stitch weld the hell out of it..Gotta be period correct!!!

Yes, Hiperf. Wayne Baldwin built this car for Dan. But it was a turbo when he told me about it. In post #43 there is a reference to Dan with his 142 and the guy mentions the turbo. The post is from the guy who rode with him on rally. Phil Barnes. http://www.specialstage.com/forums/s...-the-day/page5

It's a nice thread about the rallys and races these guys did in 142. That's what I saw Dan running at the Glen. A really nice 142 that was very fast.

I have not been able to work out how to post pictures on this forum, otherwise I would post some pic's of my various Volvo 240's. Very different from Facebook, so if some kind soul could tell me how to be able to post some Photo's, I have quite a collection stored on my MacBook Pro, that I would be happy to post.

I have not been able to work out how to post pictures on this forum, otherwise I would post some pic's of my various Volvo 240's. Very different from Facebook, so if some kind soul could tell me how to be able to post some Photo's, I have quite a collection stored on my MacBook Pro, that I would be happy to post.

Cheers,

Mark.

G'day Mark..If you want to tell us some war-stories about your days with the Cossies there are a few lurkin Cossie fans (and one owner at least ) that would be happy to hear some..

I have not been able to work out how to post pictures on this forum, otherwise I would post some pic's of my various Volvo 240's. Very different from Facebook, so if some kind soul could tell me how to be able to post some Photo's, I have quite a collection stored on my MacBook Pro, that I would be happy to post.

Cheers,

Mark.

You need to setup an account on a photo cloud service (like flickr.com) and then you can use the yellow picture icon in your turbobricks post to copy+paste a hyperlink to your online picture.
The photo cloud service should allow hotlinking to your pictures, some services do not.
Hope this helps!

Thanks, Mark! Some good info in the never- ending debate about these cars. I have a flat hood ‘83
and this topic is rehashed over again on TB. 50 cars? 500 cars? Dana and I discussed this over a beer at the mountain meet.
Nice to hear from someone who really drove one balls out.

Thanks, Mark! Some good info in the never- ending debate about these cars. I have a flat hood ‘83
and this topic is rehashed over again on TB. 50 cars? 500 cars? Dana and I discussed this over a beer at the mountain meet.
Nice to hear from someone who really drove one balls out.

Well now you know MikeSr, there is no more debate, because the facts are now known and testified to by the project engineer in charge of the whole Evolution program, Goran Sallstrom.

If you lift the hood and look at your Chassis plate it will have an SO2476 number on the top right hand side of the plate. If you chassis plate does not have that specific dedicated code somebody has converted your cars original Coffin-Nose hood and grill, to a Flat-Nose version before you got to buy the car.

It would also be interesting to know if your car still has the Silver painted grill because all 505 Evolution cars that left the factory were fitted with these Silver painted grill's, many were changed by the original dealer's to the optional black grill with the chrome strip's across the top and bottom of the grill which my own car has, and interestingly the photo of the FIA approved Evolution car has the optional Black grill with the chrome stripes.

All the Factory supported, so called "Works" cars were fitted with the plain Black grill, and each individual "Works" team laboriously cut the back out of grill individual box's horizontal blade's, so that it would pass more air! It took on average 4 hours to do this, and nobody ever proved a quantifiable gain, yet we still did it to each and every grill we had to replace, or when we built up a new car etc.

You need to setup an account on a photo cloud service (like flickr.com) and then you can use the yellow picture icon in your turbobricks post to copy+paste a hyperlink to your online picture.
The photo cloud service should allow hotlinking to your pictures, some services do not.
Hope this helps!

Thanks Janspeed, I will get my Grandson to help me get this set up and move my photo files into the cloud etc. By the way I used to race Datsun's 1200 Coupe's and dealt with Jarn at Janspeed, he copied what we were doing with the engines here in New Zealand, etc back in 1972/73.

G'day Mark..If you want to tell us some war-stories about your days with the Cossies there are a few lurkin Cossie fans (and one owner at least ) that would be happy to hear some..

Oh still making seals?

Hi John, I sold the last of my RS 500's, the famous " Whittakers Peanut Slab" car about 10 years ago, I may end up buying it back, because it's still absolutely original, and still bloody fast in Historic racing.

I sold out of the Seal Company many years ago 1989 to be precise, and now that the patent has long run out on my split seal I haven't had a royalty cheque for many years. It was a good business until all the copy cats arrived now it's a dog eat dog business.

Well now you know MikeSr, there is no more debate, because the facts are now known and testified to by the project engineer in charge of the whole Evolution program Goran Sallstrom.

If you lift the hood and look at your Chassis plate it will have an SO2476 number on the top right hand side of the plate. If you chassis plate does not have that specific dedicated code somebody has converted your cars original Coffin-Nose hood and grill, to a Flat-Nose version before you got to buy the car.

It would also be interesting to know if your car still has the Silver painted grill because all 505 Evolution cars that left the factory were fitted with these Silver painted grill's, many were changed by the original dealer's to the optional black grill with the chrome strip's across the top and bottom of the grill which my own car has, and interestingly the photo of the FIA approved Evolution car has the optional Black grill with the chrome stripes.

All the Factory supported, so called "Works" cars were fitted with the plain Black grill, and each individual "Works" team laboriously cut the back out of grill individual box's horizontal blade's, so that it would pass more air! It took on average 4 hours to do this, and nobody ever proved a quantifiable gain, yet we still did it to each and every grill we had to replace, or when we built up a new car etc.

Mine has the SO2476 plate, but has the black grille with chrome top and bottom bars. The original owner was a Volvo mechanic and kept it in great original condition except for a respray. The car was an original dealer sale in Atlanta Georgia,USA.

Mine has the SO2476 plate, but has the black grille with chrome top and bottom bars. The original owner was a Volvo mechanic and kept it in great original condition except for a respray. The car was an original dealer sale in Atlanta Georgia,USA.

From my point of view it's kind of an unexpected "meet your heroes" moment on an obscure little American-based Volvo forum!

So yours is one of the US Evolution cars, not one of the Group A race cars, have I read that correctly?
When you build your replica Group A, is the intention that it be as historically accurate as possible (EFI running water injection, the embiggened K-Jet system, alloy diff housing with non-perpendicular axles for rear camber, whacky custom intercooler, etc etc)?

Is that your red car? That looks like the one from EBay a year or so ago. I watch these, thinking of selling mine in the new year.

Yes, that's my Red 240T Evo, Patrick Dickman found it for me. I think it was on Ebay about 2 and a bit years ago, but Patrick knew the car, so went and checked it out for me then took it the Port for me, just so helpful and great to deal with.